Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked widespread anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
